asked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will use his Competition Act powers to refer the price of bread to the Director General of Fair Trading for investigation.

My right hon. Friend does not think it would be appropriate to use these powers in the case of the bread industry, particularly as the profit on the standard loaf is still very low, and as a considerable number of redundancies have already occurred in this industry, and also in view of the fact that the particular industry has already been the subject of investigations by the Price Commission and the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.